JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER. 381 



claim this truth, not to assert it in every word and deed, is to 

 be what Whittier could never have been, — a deliberate coward. 



In the course of his life he advocated more reforms than one. 

 His conduct in regard to the abolition of slavery,' however, is 

 typical of his conduct in all. It will serve our purpose to con- 

 sider that alone. 



Quite to appreciate the courage implied in the public assertion 

 of antislavery opinions sixty years ago demands to-day no 

 small effort of imagination. It was greater than that which 

 would be shown to-day by an ambitious aspirant for public 

 honors, who should honestly and openly question the wisdom of 

 the ultimate abolition of slavery. To-da}^, such an opinion, 

 which was the dominant opinion in 1830, could result in no 

 worse harm than political ridicule or neglect. It would hardly 

 diminish the number or the cordiality of one's social invita- 

 tions. In 1830 an Abolitionist was held little less than trea- 

 sonable. Social ostracism was almost certainly his due. His 

 very person was not safe from public attack ; and the blind hos- 

 tility of the mob — which for some years to come was far too 

 noisy to detect the whisperings of any still small voice — was 

 confirmed by that profoundly honest belief in the public duty of 

 maintaining existing institutions which has always characterized 

 the better classes in any community of- British origin. Perhaps 

 the closest analogy which we can imagine to-day to the Aboli- 

 tionists of 1833 would be a body of earnest, God-fearing men who 

 should be convinced that God bade them cry out against the 

 institution of marriage. 



In the face of such a state of public opinion as this, Whittier 

 never for a moment faltered. He knew what was right. The 

 one curse spared him was the curse of even momentary doubt. 

 Shy in temperament, loving most of all the simple seclusion of 

 his native county, he never hesitated to speak and to act with 

 all his power for the cause of human freedom. That enfran- 

 chisement, in the broadest sense, could possibly result only in 

 a new phase of evil, he never dreamt to the end. He was a man. 

 Negroes, Indians, Chinamen, Polish Jews, are men too. Let all 

 have equal rights, all an equal voice, all be equal in the sight of 

 man as they are eternally equal in the sight of God. What he 

 actually did, we have seen in our brief record of his life. That 

 brief record has been enough to show that the dreadful fact of 

 slavery was a fact of which he had little direct knowledge. He 



